Roofing material

ABSTRACT

A roofing material consisting of slabs of bark from trees of the family Pinaceae bonded to a backing sheet of heat dissipating material for structural integrity and fire resistant qualities.

May 7, 1974 R.E. FERGUSON `P-:TAL

ROOFING MATERIAL Filed Feb. 9, 1973 (58 llffl 'I l\\\\\\\\ We ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A roofing material consisting of slabs of bark from trees of the family Pinaceae bonded to a backing sheet of heat dissipating material for structural integrity and fire resistant qualities.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION vConventional wood shingles are somewhat uniform in lsize and shape and are applied as a roong cover in neat rowsfor a tidy appearance. Shake shingles are larger, thicker and more irregular in appearance. Their jagged rough appearance of being handmade presents a pleasing quality that makes them very popular even though they are more expensive and harder to apply. Both types of shingles, however, use the trunk or bole part of the tree which has the structural integrity to hold nails used in fastening them to the roof. Although shingles are made from smaller lengths of wood such as scrap unsuitable for lumber, this wood nevertheless could be converted to sawdust, shavings and other forms suitable for making composition, plywood or other wood composites. Wood shingles, when old and dried out, present a'serious fire hazard such that they are banned from use in most mountainous and wooded areas.

Bark from trees heretofore had little value and presented a disposal problem around sawmills. It was lighter than the trunk or bole part of the tree but lacked structural integrity. It could be crumbled and used for insulation. Bark chips are used in gardening to loosen the soil and to preserve moisture. Bark also could be used for decorative effects. Although it is burnable it is not good for re making.

Along the redwood forests on the Pacific Coast from central California to Oregon are lumber mills for coverting giant redwoods into lumber. The wood is soft, red and weak but resistant to decay, disease and insects. The lumber is good for siding, interior finish of buildings, and other non-structural uses where durability is important. It also may be converted into sawdust, shavings and other forms for wood composits. The trees are over 200 feet tall and are eight to 12 feet in diameter. The bark is about 12 inches thick and is fire resistant. This supply of redwood bark as a raw material is now available as a waste product from these lumber mills. Bark from cedar, juniper and cypress is also available since those trees make good lumber.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, the bark from trees from the pine family, Pinaceae, especially redwood, cedar, ]'uniper and cypress, is used decoratively as a shake shingle when bonded to a suitable backup material having heat dissipating qualities, re resistence and structural integrity for fastening the shingle to the roof.

The bark is cut into slabs of desired shingle length, normally 18" to 24", and of a tapered thickness from about 1/8" at one end to up to about 2" at the other end. The slabs preferably are from 2" to 12" in width.

` Their undersurface preferably is at although their up- United States Patent O ice persurface may be of any desired decorative configuration. v

The bark slabs are laid side by side on a sheet of backing material such as .020" aluminum or .003 steel foil. A woven fabric 0r plastic sheeting also may be used provided it has the structural integrity and heat dissipating qualities. These slabs are then bonded to the. sheets with a rubber based phenolic, contact cement, or any other suitable adhesive. One such reinforced rubber cement of phenolic resin is marketed under the trade name Plybond by.Goodyear. Other forms of glue may be heat or pressure sensitive and may be used for the purpose of securing the slabs of bark to the backing sheet. Any suitable form of mechanical attachment also may be used.

After bonding, the composite may be rolled into a roll or cut into sheets for handling, storage and installation. In installing, the sheets of shingles are overlapped in a manner similar to installing conventional shingles and are nailed to the sub-roof with nails passing through the bark slabs and sheeting material. Because the shingles come in sheets or rolls they are much faster to apply, resulting in a considerable saving of labor and subsequent cost.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS IFIG. 4 is a plan view of a roof section of several layers and rows of shingles, and

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view taken along the line 5-5 in FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 there is shown a shingle 10 consisting of a plurality of slabs of bark 12, 14 and 16 having a backing sheet 18 to to which they are attached. These slabs of bark may be 18" to 24" in length, as thin as 1A" at its upper end 20 and as thick as 2" at its lower end 22. These slabs may vary from 2" to 12" in width. Backing sheet 18 preferably is of a metallic material that not only sheds water but is a good conductor of heat and is fire retardant. However, in some cases a fabric material will be suitable.

The slabs 12, 14 and 16 are a'ixed to the backing sheet 18 by bonding, gluing, or tacking or stapling from the underside to hold them as an integral unit until installed. Upon installation, the nails used in fastening the shingles to the building roof lend additional reinforcement against shear forces that will be present when the shingle is in use.

FIG. 2 shows symbolically one form of fabrication of rooting material which may be used in sheet or strip form as desired. Here there is shown a roll 24 of backing material 26 passing over a work station 27 where a Workman 28 is placing slabs 30 ou the top surface of the material 26. In this illustration the backing material 26 has already been pre-treated -with a suitable bonding agent which in this case reacts to heat. Passage over a heat source 32 causes the` bonding to take place and thereafter the composite may be re-rolled on roll 34 for storage, shipment and use.

Instead of rolls of the composite, it may preferably be cut into strips or sheets for convenient handling. For example, the bottom row 36 on roof frame 38 of building 40 in FIG. 3 may be a continuous sheet cut from a roll or it may be a plurality of sheets placed together, and fastened to frame 38 by means of nails 42, for example.

Following conventional roofing installation practice, a

rst row of shingles is laid and fastened along the lowermost portion of the roof and then additional rows are superimposed over them as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. After the first row 44 has been laid and nailed along the top to horizontal frame member 46 by nails 48, a second row of shingles S is placedabove it so that from about 1/2 to 7/a of row 44 is covered with the second row. This row is then nailed at the top to horizontal frame member 52 by nails 54. Thereafter the third row 56 and fourth row 58 is applied as before until the roof is completed.

In applying these shingles from rolls or sheets there is a tremendous saving in labor at the site of the building to be roofed. The hand overlapping and fitting of shingles to prevent leakage is eliminated and the roofing job may be done much faster at a great saving of cost and convenience. Weather protection of the inside of the building permits inside work to start sooner and the entire building to be linished more quickly.

In using shingles made from the bark of trees from the family Pinaceae, which is on the order of 55% to 65% of the Weight of conventional cedar shake shingles made from the trunk or bole part of the tree, the building structure may be engineered for this lighter weight and may itself be lighter and hence cheaper. Lastly, the cost of shingles made from the bark of trees from the family Pinaceae is less than conventional wood shingles since they are made from sawmill waste and they are also easy to cut.

Having thus described an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that modifications thereof will become apparent to those skilled in the art and it is to be understood that these deviations are to be construed as part of the present invention.

We claim:

1. A roofing material comprising:

a plurality of slabs of bark from trees of the family Pinaceae, yand Y a backing sheet, said slabs being laid side by side on said backing sheet and secured thereto.

2. A roofing material as in claim 1 wherein said slabs taper in thickness from one end'to another.

3. A rooting material as in claim 2 wherein said'slabs are from 18" to 24" in length, from 2 to 12" in width, and taper from a minimum thickness of Ms aty one end to a maximum thickness of 2" at the other end. v

4. A roofing material as in claim 1 wherein said'slabs are mechanically attached to said backing sheet by fasteners extending through said sheet and into the bottom surface of said slabs.

5. A rooting .material as in claim 1 wherein said slabs are selected from bark from redwood, cedar, juniper and cypress trees. l

6. A roofing material as in claim 1 wherein said backing sheet is of metallic material.

7. A rooting material as in claim 6 wherein said'slabs are adhesively affixed to said metallic material.

8. A roofing material as in claim `6 wherein said slabs are mechanically attached to said metallic material by fasteners driven up into saidmetallic material and thence into said slabs.

References Cited UNITED sTATEs PATENTS 3,624,975 12/1971 Morgan et al. 52--555X 3,307,989 3/ 1967 Harshberger 156-171 PHILIP DIER, Primary Examiner y U.s. c1. X.R.

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